Elysium (Trailer #1) Review

Finally one of my most anticipated films of the year has a trailer and it looks kick ass! They also released more plot details and a whole host of movie stills here. I am ridiculously excited about this film, I have even written articles on it and am a massive fan of Neill Blomkamp after District 9 (where’s that sequel?) the greatest original alien film for a while. First the good (is there bad) this trailer doesn’t reveal much of anything which I like, keep the mystery in this relationship. It has beautiful visuals showing what giving creative people money looks like. The bad, I have to wait until September. September! What do you think I am reasonable? I want it now. As for the rest of the trailer please read on for my favourite scenes.

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My Score:A

Plot:

In the year 2154, two classes of people exist: the very wealthy, who live on Elysium – a Stanford torus space habitat in Earth orbit – and the rest, who live on an overpopulated, ruined Earth. The people of Earth are desperate to escape the planet’s crime and poverty, and they critically need the state-of-the-art medical care available on Elysium – but some in Elysium will stop at nothing to enforce anti-immigration laws and preserve their citizens’ luxurious lifestyle. The only man with the chance to bring equality to these worlds is Max Da Costa, an ordinary guy in desperate need to get to Elysium. With his life hanging in the balance, he reluctantly takes on a dangerous mission – one that pits him against Elysium’s mayor, Secretary Jessica Delacourt and her hard-line forces – but if he succeeds, he could save not only his own life, but millions of people on Earth as well.

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Top 8 Scenes

8. The Privileged Elysium

How beautiful and perfect everything looks, it truly is a vision of civilized future. Sadly as we learn this isn’t even on earth but an orbiting space station populated with the rich elite of humanity. Blomkamp clearly has great ideas of both visuals and how the future may look and being given $100M is a sight to be seen…in IMAX!

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7. The Squalors of Earth

Well that didn’t take long, welcome to the hell that is earth. Tower blocks and grey cement for miles represent the overcrowded squalors of Earth populated by the mass poor of humanity. Blomkamp within two films has already set himself a theme of segregation in his stories. The haves and have not’s in science fiction has historically worked very well I hope to see some deep satire from this film.

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6. Robots!

A staple diet of the science fiction films set in the future, robots are featured throughout as servants and in this scene a military unit. What I really like about the visuals in the robots is how it sticks to the same look as featured in District 9, this clearly demonstrating Blomkamp’s creative visuals and I find the best way to describe his style is functional.

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5. Sharlto Copley Looks Menacing

I love this shot in full costume, lights flashing with high beams center forward. It’s amazing how difference Copley looks in this film, the first still I saw of him I didn’t recognize him at all. He looks so nice in interviews I couldn’t believe he was going to a villain but he is clearly able to pull it with style, check out some of the later stills.

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4. Matt Damon Ripping a Robots Head Off

Just so cool! That exoskeleton must be allowing Damon to be super strong to dismantle a combat robot. I cannot wait to see what else the tech can do. Does anyone else feel a connection between the alien films androids and the robots in this film, specifically from the way fluids are spraying from the head as it is removed reminiscent of Bishop or Ash as they died or broke?

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3. Copley as Kruger Blowing Stuff Up

He uses tech to cause this scene which is good looking for the trailer but also brings up a question. Is it a bomb he is remote detonating or some other high tech weaponry? Probably the first one but it’s fun to speculate about these things for example magnetic manipulation. Any other theories are welcome in the comments section.

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2. Elysium On The Curve

This is a beautiful shot on its own but also demonstrates what Elysium really is. Here you can see Elysium as a large circular space station orbiting the earth. You can see the curve in the station and where the people actually live separated into triangular strips of land with controlled atmosphere and landscapes. You can also see the earth looking pretty small.

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1. Kruger Ready for Battle

He looks fierce in this scene, rough beard, fully armoured, big knife etc. I really hope this is a finale battle with Matt Damon where they fight with the super tech exo suits, the stuff of nerd dreams. Fight! Fight! Fight!

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Poster

Well that’s my views. Now what do you think about this newest trailer?

I LOVE that you review trailers, Tim. One of these days I’m gonna have to get your review linked to the new trailers I put on Trailer Time Thursday!

Elysium does look good…though I am not completely sold on it yet. The trailer is intriguing enough but it didn’t have that wow factor for me enough to sell me on the movie completely yet. Perhaps the next one will.

I watched the trailer and while I’m still pretty excited for the film the trailer didn’t sway me that much. I LOVED District 9 it was one of my favourite films of recent years and since this is from the same director and also features MATT DAMON I have high hopes. I just pray that its badass.

That could be a reason but with all of the help he is getting I think it would be more to help others than just himself. However they did put emphasis on that cancer removing machine, so you maybe on to something.